Colombia raid angers Chavez

Venezuelan president says cross-border incursion against Farc could trigger war.

02 Mar 2008 09:58 GMT

Raul Reyes was killed in a Colombian air raid on Saturday [AFP]

The Colombian military killed Reyes in an air raid on Saturday inneighbouring Ecuador, dealing a major blow to the group,officials said earlier in Bogota.

Ecuador protest

Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president, has said he will send a diplomatic note to protest the Colombian military incursion.

Reyes was in a rebel camp located 1.8km fromthe Ecuadoran-Colombian border when the air force began bombingshortly after midnight, Juan ManuelSantos, the Colombia defence minister, told a news conference.

Colombian ground troops were then deployed into the Farchideout to secure the area, Santos said. A total of 17 rebelsand one soldier were killed in the operation.

"It is the heaviest blow ever dealt against this terroristgroup," Santos said.

Reyes, 59, whose real name was Luis Edgar Devia, was a unionleader working for Swiss food giant Nestle in the southerndepartment of Caqueta when he joined the Revolutionary Armed Forcesof Colombia (Farc) in the 1970s.

The grey-bearded, bespectacled rebel, who went on to become theFarc's chief spokesman, donning olive fatigues and carrying a rifle,had been viewed as a possible successor to the group's 77-year-oldboss, Manuel Marulanda.

His killing was a major coup for conservative President Uribe, who has taken a hard stance against the 17,000-strong Farc,South America's biggest insurgency which has bedeviled successivegovernments since the 1960s.

It was the first time that one of the seven members of Farc'ssecretariat, or leadership council, was killed in combat.